18th meeting of the Executive Committee of
the
« Laity of the Chevalier Family in Europe”
April 17-18-19 2009 LYON (France)
Present :
Rita Cleuren (Belgium), Marie-Blanche Cordonier (Switzerland), Elisabeth Hartmann (Germany), Louis Joly (France), Ana San Martin (Spain), Mimi van Poppel (the Netherlands), Hannie Jansen (the Netherlands), Father Nick Harnan (Cor Novum), Father Mark McDonald (representative of the 3 Generalats).
Excused: Sue Kimberley (England)
FRIDAY APRIL 17 2009
Welcome and moment of sharing. We show some photographs taken at the International Meeting that took place in San Domingo from November 15 till November 24 2008.
SATURDAY
APRIL 18 2009
1.
WELCOME AND PRAYER
We thank Our Lord for taking care of us during this meeting.
We read Sister Stephani’s message…Her thoughts are with us…
2.
REPORT OF THE MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 20 AND 21 2008 IS ADOPTED
UNANIMOUSLY
The report on the site is adopted.
3.
EVALUATION OF THE SAN DOMINGO MEETING (November 15 till 24 2008)
3.1
ORGANIZATION
§
Mimi has learned a lot from this
meeting. She was honoured to be amongst the participants. She sincerely thanks
the organizing team for its efforts.
She was touched by the way the Lay were able to share their simple and poor
living conditions.
Small remark: not good tables for the participants to take notes…
§
Hannie :
Difficult, but wonderful
Profound respect for Rita and Nick for all that they have done!
§
Elisabeth : very good programme, perfect organization!
Good alternation between interesting conferences and group activities.
Inspiring Holy Mass and pleasant evening activities
The different prayers of the continents were sometimes too « formal and informative » (Power Point).
The European identity topic was very well explained and clarified by Nick.
§
Ana : special thanks to Nick
and Rita for what they have done !
Thanks to the Dominican Republic Lay for their precious help and perfect organization!
This has been a magnificent and an once-in-a-lifetime experience on a personal, religious and spiritual level!
A rather expensive and financially complicated meeting.
She thanks God for this experience!
§
Nick : wonderful experience !
very different from his usual way of working.
He is persuaded that the Lay Branch will have an important mission to fulfil in the future.
It was sometimes
difficult to channel all the generosity, richness and warmth felt at the
meeting
Conferences should be strictly outlined and scheduled! (avoid long speeches!)
More time to « digest » all the information.
Good interpreters are crucial!
Is there a First Aid Post (for the handicapped, the elderly)?
§
Rita : regrets not having had
the opportunity to spend some more time with the whole International Committee. Still, she shared a lot with Father
Nick and the San Domingo Lay.
§
This was indeed the perfect
time to organize this meeting.
Special thanks to those who wrote the daily reports and to Louis for putting the reports on the website. Thanks to Louis for doing this.
§
Louis : had a strong feeling of
solidarity and felt united through the messages he received…
3.2
FINANCES
Louis has sent us a copy of all the bills (see papers). He has not yet received the invoices of San Domingo.
Rita will ask the financial results so that they can be integrated in the general bookkeeping.
Financial contributions towards the travel expenses: about €28.000 with great inequality … (Papua New Guinea – Congo)
See to it in the future that the financial contributions be limited to a certain amount…We need not pay for everything!
We should thank the contributors for their support: reports and photographs (Rita and Louis).
3.3
CONFERENCES
The texts of the conference should be put on the Internet site in 3 languages + photographs + reports!
Rita wrote a small text on the meeting. The text was published in a Belgian magazine.
3.4
EVALUATION OF THE PARTICIPANTS
We asked them to answer these three questions:
What will you remember the most of this meeting?
Do you have suggestions for
future meetings?
What are your
recommendations for the future?
The answers will be examined and summarized by Ana (Spanish), Rita, Mimi and Hannie (English) and by Marie-Blanche (French).
3.5
HOW CAN WE SPREAD AND SHARE THE NEWS OF ALL LAY MOVEMENTS?
§
Louis : « Egroup » already
exists, but is not yet used, due to the translation problems (too complicated).
Leave the message in its original language…not successful either…
§
Re-activate:
- Leave out translations
- Let the members of the Coordinating team re-launch the “Egroup” with short texts of the San Domingo Meeting. Be sure that all participants receive the correct information on the site!
- Appoint three moderators to check each language: French, English and Spanish.
3.6
CONTACT PERSONS
§ One person from Peru. Peru has two groups: one linked to the fathers and another group linked to the sisters (the group that has responded). Ask Alaïda to contact the other Peru group.
§ There is still a vivid competition between the MSC Fathers, the MSC Sisters and the FNDSC. They should learn to work together.
§ We need every province, every region to take action!
3.7
NEXT « NEWSLETTER »
IN JUNE 2009
§
Louis : The spiritual (monthly)
letter of the MSC Fraternity will no longer be published and will be replaced
by the Annals with a totally different spiritual approach.
- How to organize a common spiritual formation? (Cor Novum: sessions are too long and too expensive!)
- Could we ask Cor Novum to offer this spiritual formation in Europe and even beyond Europe… at a pace to be defined... (two-sided A4 paper?)
- Make sure that the Formation of the Lay does not depend on only one person! What happens if that person disappears?
§
Father Mark : Denis Murphy has written some texts for the Indian seminarists. Philippe
Seveau translated these texts into French.
§ Nick : Cor Novum agrees with a Lay formation. Nick will think about this idea and will give us his propositions.
§ Rita : This letter should not only be put on the website, it should also be sent to all persons interested!
3.8
HOW TO REACT AS AN
ASSOCIATION FOR EUROPE?
§ Organizing continental meetings becomes more and more difficult: members are getting older and expenses are growing…(Switzerland/France)
§ Model “« Church and Peace » (Louis)
- One year: combine the General Assembly with the Conference for all groups
- The following year: Assembly for the groups in every country.
§ Members of other countries should also be invited for these meetings (Mimi).
3.9
INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE
Decision taken in San Domingo: Let the European Coordinating Team continue its activities as an International Coordinating Team!
3.10.CONCLUSIONS
§ It is good to spend some time together as a European team.
§ We often react from an International point of view, and less from a European point of view.
§ Some groups have more autonomy than others.
§ Some provinces feel “isolated”: it would be good to organize “larger” meetings every two years (Northern Europe/Southern Europe)
§ The General Assembly has to be accessible to all members of the Provinces
§ Activities, formation programmes should be put on the website.
§ Ask the Professed to engage the Lay in their activities.
SUNDAY APRIL 19
1.
NEWS FROM THE 3 GENERALATS
§ June 2008, General Chapter of the MSC Sisters. Sister Mechtild was appointed General Superior.
§ September 2008: General MSC Conference in Cameroun.
§ Meeting of the three Generalats during the Holy Week in 2009: the compositions of their Committees have been changed
§ Committee Members that are in contact with the Lay :
- Sister Relida, FDNSC Sisters
- Sister Gregoria, MSC Sisters
- Father Faustino (Tino) Fernandez, MSC
§ A common vision on the formation of the Chevalier Family, all parties should be present at the Cor Novum Sessions.
§ Installation and formation of continental or regional groups that can continue the formation. Already exists in Indonesia.
§ Documents are already being elaborated. First for the Professed, but in a later phase also for the Lay.
1. What do we mean by “Spirituality of the Heart”?
2. How is this formation process rooted in our spirituality?
3. On which items do we put the emphasis?
§ Next meeting of the three Generalats (12 persons) from December 14 till 16 in Rome. Rita has also been invited.
2.
COR NOVUM
§
Formation perspectives
of Cor Novum:
- Continuous formation for all branches of the Chevalier Family
- Willing to help in the formation of Laity.
- The Congregations will remain responsible for the formation programmes
- Maybe the Laity branch could appoint some people that would be responsible for the formation programme? These persons would then be assisted by Cor Novum…
§ It is Cor Novum’s wish to also have some Lay Members in the future… There is still a long way to go, though…
3.
FINANCIAL SITUATION
Fund-raising?
4.
INTERNET SITE
§
Re-activate the E-groups
§
Continue the
formation
§
Update and adapt the site, delete
“old information”
§
To be put on the next meeting’s agenda: internet site, adaptations:
« Who and How » ?
5.
SHARING THE LIVES OF THE DIFFERENT GROUPS
§ Hannie : Rotterdam group
- Small growing group
- Work together/close contact with another group: SMMBrothers
- Works with refugees
§ Elisabeth : 2 growing groups
- Duisbourg :
§ weekend of contemplation and meditation
§ the group spends one week together on a isle. ( Stephani)
-
Hilltrup
§
Celebration: Meeting with Mary
§
6 Members will meet the Duisbourg
group
§ Ana : same activities in Spain
- Twice a year they organize a market day to raise money for a ONG (Argentina, Guatemala, Paraguay)
- On Monday, Formation meeting with Father Chema
- On Thursday: time for prayer and meditation
- 30 members (middle-aged); needs to expand.
§
Mimi :
- Meeting with all Lay groups of the Netherlands + some Lay are working in MSC Homes for the Elderly
- 3 year spirituality project
- the people that take care of the elderly are asked what their needs are (in a letter)
- Fons, Jacqueline, Mimi and some other Lay will think about the support they need.
- Power Point Presentation on the 2008 international meeting for all groups (Laity and Professed)
§ Marie-Blanche : MSC Fraternity
-
Fruitful meeting in December with
Father Gérard Blattman, the new Provincial
- There was time to talk about the problems of the FMSC
- Debate on the “Newsletter” and the Annals replacing the Newsletter
- Meeting in Lausanne, in March, with the Lay that are in close contact with the MSC. They decided to meet every two years.
§ Louis : Alain de Boismenu Communion / Meeting with the Provincial and Father Bonnemort
- Louis and Nadette were deeply touched to see that the Miribel Group was the very first group to be contacted! They came to Miribel especially for them!
- Meeting time with Louis and Nadette on Thuesday
- Meeting time with Louise and all other members
- Great understanding!
- Renewal of the vows of Louis, Nadette and Louise. Time for formation in order to prepare the vows of another member.
- The lack of spiritual support is felt by the whole group. A meeting will be planned on May 18, 2009 (Louis + Nadette + Gilbert + Odile P.)
§ Rita : Belgium
- Continues its normal activities
- Took care of the youngsters that came to Brussels for the Taizé meeting at the end of 2008-early 2009. Enriching and inspiring time for us as well as for the MSC in Asse
- July 2009: 3 days of reflection/contemplation. We invited Father Hans Kwakman (Cor Novum) to talk about the Spirituality of the Heart and to see how this spirituality could help us in our struggle against violence in our Society.
England/Ireland: Nick had an encouraging talk with Sara Nash. Sara is a Lay, lives in London and works in a MSC Parish. Together with Sue, she is going to try to breathe new life into the Lay Movement!
NEXT MEETINGS:
Executive Committee:
November 14 (3 pm) till November 15 (2 pm) 2009
General Assembly:
10-11 April 2010